flowers come to mind... and hearts... chocolate hearts. Yum. We used to own a chocolate factory. Honest. No Oompa Loompas, but all the chocolate we could ever want. Good chocolate, too. Our children grew up having been taught how to discern good chocolate from bad chocolate (yes, there IS such a thing as bad chocolate). They couldn't tell you the cocoa butter content, or how many hours the chocolate spent in the conche, or if the cacao beans were from South America or Africa, but they could identify quality with one taste. They acquired this discerning palate through experience... by actually eating the good stuff. Their daddy would also point out the nuances of aroma, velvety texture and appearance, but mostly they learned it by taste. I'm re-reading a favorite book of mine, Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby. Specifically, I'm in the chapter which describes how God speaks to us, and in response to the question of knowing if we are really 'hearing from God', Blackaby describes the method used by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to train their people in anti-counterfeiting work. Trainees never see a counterfeit bill, but so thoroughly study the genuine thing that the counterfeit currency stands out as fake. Blackaby points out that when something doesn't line up with God's Word, or if it goes counter to what we've learned of His Character, then it's counterfeit. It's been said that you may not always be able to discern what God is saying, but you can tell what He isn't saying. He always acts out of His love for us.
On one of our vacations, when Leah and Ashley were small (ages 6 and 4) they were so excited when they were given chocolate bars upon our check-in to the hotel. But, they took one bite of the bars, and threw them away. What they were tasting didn't measure up to what they had come to know, by experience, as good chocolate, so they passed it by.
Sweet 'n simple.
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